Hanina Ben-Menahem is an Oxford trained scholar at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem who specializes in Jewish law (Halakha).
He argues that Jewish law is not a unified legal system and that its sources and principles are not logically and hierarchically ordered.
Instead, he contends that Jewish law has a pluralistic structure, in regard both to its differing domains of authority (e.g., Ashkenazi and Sephardi) and the co-existence of incompatible rules.
He believes Halakha makes room for judicial discretion and deviation, leading to a non-systematic tolerance for controversy.
Furthermore, Halakha lacks strict adherence to precedence, an appellate system, and "secondary rules of recognition" (cp.